


Strong Coffee, Tattooed Girls, and No Outlets

by listenup_folks



Category: fifth harmony - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Starbucks AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 09:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9229091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/listenup_folks/pseuds/listenup_folks
Summary: "There's only one plus in this entire coffee shop and you're sitting right in front of it and my phones about to die so whatever I don't care how attractive you are I'm sitting there and plugging my stuff in"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Also on wattpad longerr_hours
> 
> Mainly based on tumblr prompt, slightly changed.

Camila’s favorite coffee place was always the local one down the street from her apartment, Coffee break. It only has two open shops in existence so she struggled when she was on vacations, but it was her favorite shop and she was completely uninterested in finding another favorite, even if it meant she didn’t know what to order at the main chains in America. 

Dinah on the other hand favors Starbucks. 

And like, okay, it’s not that Camila hates Starbucks because it’s a pretty nice place usually and the staff are nice but like, why should she pay like six dollars for a coffee that’s too strong for her taste and gets her the label of basic to anybody who sees her holding it? She doesn’t hate it but she doesn’t know what to order there since like she said, she only goes to Coffee Break and she always gets their “Jamaican Me Crazy” special and she doesn’t think Starbucks has that. 

But she doesn’t hate Starbucks so when Dinah said to meet there to catch up Camila didn’t think anything of it, really she didn’t bother arguing because Dinah is a coffee snob and won’t budge on her choices. 

So that leaves Camila here, standing in huge line and scanning the board that she can’t read since she forgot to put her contacts in and is hoping Dinah will get here any minute now.

She knows that’s unlikely though. Camila is usually the one that’s late out of their friendship however Camila knows that since winter break ended and they’re back, Dinah has been a mess when it came to her schedule, and Wednesday morning classes means that most likely 

“What can I get for you?” she registers the barista’s voice and snaps out of her thoughts turning to the girl asking her order.

“Oh, hi umm, can I get…” Camila stutters out, unfocused because the girl is sort of pretty and Camila is awkward ordering without the added presence of pretty. “A caramel macchiato, extra caramel, oh and venti please,” she finally decides upon just ordering what Dinah gets because she’s tried it and it doesn’t entirely suck and if she doesn’t go with it she could stand here all day debating with herself. 

“Sure thing what’s the name for that?” the blonde behind the counter asks with a smile at Camila’s stuttering as she scribbles down the order on a cup then looks up with her eyebrow raised expectantly. 

“Camila,” she answers, knowing it’ll be spelled wrong or pronounced wrong or both, but not minding because she’s used to it, especially when ordering food and drinks. (All the Coffee Breaks in town spell it right since she goes there so often, but she won’t mention that). 

Camila pays and the girl counts out ehr change and with one smile Camila is on the other side, waiting for her order and scanning for Dinah, the only reason she just spent $5.95 on a drink. 

Obviously it doesn’t take too long since it’s just a drink and five minutes later she’s settled into a seat and taking slow sips of her drink, trying not to burn her tongue but eager to get coffee in her, and scanning occasionally for any sign Dinah.

Maybe she should just call her, well obviously she should just call her. The issue is the red on the top right corner of Camila’s iPhone and the heat radiating off of the dying phone from over usage. Camila is probably the least talented person when it comes to remembering to charge her phone over night, meaning when she woke up in a rush, almost late for her morning class and only barely remembering her phone at all, she grabbed it with no time to charge it before class. She should have charged it in class, but Camila being herself forgot that was necessary and instead played sudoku on it for like ten minutes draining the low battery even more and then got distracted talking to Hailee and Ariana and instead of plugging her phone into the outlet literally right next to her seat, she left the phone and charger in her bag. 

That’s not the dumbest move she’s made about her phone today though. She decides to call Dinah after about five more minutes of waiting because Camila was a few minutes late herself so now Dinah is fifteen minutes late and Camila is impatient. So she pulls her phone up from where it was resting on the small table in front of her and unlocks it. Only her phone is opened to the sudoku app, so really what’s the harm in playing one more round?

Apparently a dead phone is the harm in playing another round and she doesn’t even get to finish what she’s on but when the screen freezes up then goes black she realizes she probably shouldn’t have tried to finish that round and focused on where Dinah is.

“Fuck,” Camila whispers to herself as her phone shows the loading symbol then blacks out. She looks at the wall next to the table she’s at but she’s sat at a widow so there’s no outlet. “Double fuck,” she says realizing not only is her coffee getting too cold but now she has to move more than originally planned for the day. 

Looking around the medium sized shop she notices that most walls are window so maybe she’s not in for any luck. The only wall that isn’t window is the one that has the coffee making area in front of it, so it’s basically hopeless to look around because there aren’t outlets on glass. 

While she’s scanning though something catches her eye, a laptop. A laptop attached to a wire attached to… an outlet! It’s at one of those closed off tables and is in the only leftover corner of space in at the same wall as the barista quarters but it’s an outlet and Camila does an internall fistbump to heself in celebration. 

Now she just had to figure out how to ask the person sitting there if they minded if she - oh fuck.

Camila’s jaw drops as she follows the legs at the table adorned in ripped black skinny jeans up the very feminine body to be met with a grey cut off shirt with tattoo covered arms. The body is undeniably hot but when Camila goes higher to see the face her eyes widen and she feels the room turn about two hundred times hotter than it already was. The jet black hair is tied into a messy bun at the top of her head, her eyes are so vividly green that even from across the room Camila can make them out, the pale skin contrasted with the girls look makes the perfect picture and Camila thinks that if she couldn’t handle a pretty blonde taking her coffee order, then no way in fuck is she going to be able to ask this girl who’s not only hot as fuck but intimidating as fucking fuck if she can sit with her. 

She kind of zones out for a minute or two but Camila sees the eyes she’s been staring at for god knows how long flick up from the laptop and manages to look away only a split second before she got caught, thank god because she’d never be able to face this girl is she had been caught staring at her, she doesn’t need any more stress added onto her pile of attractive girl related anxiety. 

She needs to charge her phone. It’s been probably five minutes more now since she saw the mysterious girl scrolling away at her Mac and as much as Camila wants to stare at her secretly until she leaves, she knows that she needs to charge her phone because what if Dinah tries to contact her? And really she should be contacting Dinah anyways because what if she’s hurt and that’s why she’s not here yet? Right? Camila looks around frantically hoping maybe she missed another outlet somewhere but she didn’t and it’s extremely obvious that there’s not any that she’s missing because she can clearly see the whole shop and like she said, all windows. 

But what if the girl is even more scary than she already looks? What if when Camila approaches she punches her, or takes out a knife and threatens her, or a needle and threatens to tattoo her?! She could be doing homework but she could also be buying duffel bags big enough to carry bodies! This is a dangerous, nerve racking situation for Camila and she knows she’s being ridiculous but hello, that insanely gorgeous, insanely sexy, insanely scary looking girl in the corner is the one Camila has to approach, not some chipmunk (although Camila is afraid to approach all animals besides dogs anyways since who knows what that could lead to).

The girl could also be on tumblr looking at cat memes like you would be if you had your laptop, Camila reasons with herself and nods in agreement with herself after a moment of freaking out. She could not even acknowledge Camila other than to move her bag out of the way, or she could make small talk and be really nice. 

Or she could be related to the hash slinging slasher.

“Stop it Mila. Don’t overthink just go,” she scolds herself in her head after minutes useless internal debate and it works surprisingly because her legs stand her up without consent and her hand grabs at her coffee and her bag is over her shoulder and fuck how does she actually do this. 

She manages not to trip as she makes her way slowly yet swiftly over to the table the attractive girl is seated at and before she can talk herself out of it she’s standing at the table and not knowing what to say.

Luckily for Camila the raven haired girl lifts her head up, noticing when someone stops in front of the table and gives Camila a questioning look. “Can I help you or something?” she says, not rudely just curiously, genuinely confused as to why a girl is standing looking at her.

“Yeah sorry I’m umm, this is kind of the only outlet in this place and I was wondering if you mind if I sit here too to charge my phone?” Camila manages to get out, even more hypnotized now that she’s close and can make out the specific tattoos that litter the girl’s arms and the green in her eyes becomes even more mesmerizing.

“Oh,” the girl says as she looks down at the outlet then back up at the girl in understanding. “Yeah that’s totally fine, I got worried for a second,” she jokes and moves her laptop closer to her so that Camila can have room to put her stuff down which she does after shooting a grateful smile and trying not to blush at how perfect the girl sitting in front of her looks. 

Camila really wishes she wasn’t so socially awkward because she’d love to be able to flirt with this girl, maybe get her number, maybe get into her pants, maybe get into her heart, who knows? If she was socially not awkward then millions of doors open and any of the above listed could be included as a perk.

“Camilla? Hmm…” the dark haired girl says and Camila snaps up from where she’d been plugging in her phone to see the girl studying her cup. “I’m going to go off on a whim here and guess your name is more like Cah-mee-la, and there’s only one L?” she continues and Camila’s sure her shock shows on her face because how’d this girl know that.

“How did you-”

“You look hispanic? Mexican maybe? I’m Cuban so I’m assuming, I apologize for that but Camilla doesn’t seem to fit you,” the beauty says with a small grin on her face. 

“Well you’re right, but we can’t blame the Starbucks workers they don’t have every name off the top of their heads,” Camila grins back, blushing slightly because well for one the girl across from her is even prettier when she’s smiling and because nobody has ever really gotten her name right on the first try unless she tells it to them, at least not both spelling and pronunciation right, and here this stranger is correcting the spelling and having the right pronunciation because she knows better. 

“They should know such gorgeous names though, pretty girls deserve to have their names correct on their coffee cups,” the raven haired girl grins and keeps eye contact that Camila has to break because she’s blushing at this point. “I’m Lauren,” she continues, reaching a hand across the table for Camila to shake and Camila fights off her blush and takes it, trying not to make any weird noises when she feels how soft Lauren’s skin is and how warm her palm is. 

“It’s nice to meet you Lauren,” Camila smiles back as she releases the hand because she realizes she can’t hold it for longer than normal without seeming creepy. “And thank you for recognizing the name slash error, I can safely say not a lot of people can spot it like that so you’re making a good first impression,” Camila attempts to flirt back pathetically but Lauren keeps grinning subtly and holding eye contact that Camila can’t break no matter how hard she’s going to blush at this point. 

“So what’s in the cup? If you don’t mind me asking,” Lauren says after a moment of just looking at the girl across from her. “I don’t come to Starbucks much so I’m looking for as many recommendations as I can get,” she continues.

“Caramel macchiato, it’s certainly not makin’ me crazy but it’ll do for a caffeine supply,” she replies, unable to stop herself from making a pun about her usual coffee choice. 

“Wait a minute did you just-,” Lauren says, leaning forward to look intently into Camila’s eyes with her brows furrowed in concern or something and Camila feels nervous that maybe her pun upset Lauren, “were you referring to Jamaican Me Crazy, from Coffee Break? Or am I completely off and assuming things?” she says and Camila’s jaw drops because oh my god they totally have the same usual coffee order and oh my god how has Camila never seen her in Coffee Break before and -

“Yes I a hundred percent am,” Camila replies with wide eyes and a huge smile that Lauren reflects in realization. 

“Holy fuck we have the same coffee order,” Lauren cries in a way too enthusiastic voice for anyone else talking about coffee but woah Camila thinks it’s just as exciting if not more so.

“This is crazy as shit I can’t believe you go to Coffee Break too,” Camila says back with no hint of shame for how exciting she finds something as simple as a coffee order. “I mean, I don’t think anyone I ever meet even knows what Coffee Break is, let alone goes there enough to recognize an awful pun out of one of their specials,” she explains and Lauren laughs loudly at that and Camila isn’t too intimidated by her now that she’s started laughing and smiling because she looks like a puppy and Camila loves puppies. 

“It really is weird because it’s the same for me, it’s my favorite coffee place though so obviously I’ll recognize my favorite drink’s name, and I know a pun when I see one,” Lauren laughs and Camila smiles even wider even though she didn’t think it was possible. “I’m only not there now because my friend was supposed to meet me… thirty minutes ago,” Lauren explains and Camila’s jaw gapes again in shock because woah what a coincidence.

“Oh my god, my friend was supposed to meet me at noon too,” she says and Lauren looks confused at the coincidence this time as if she’s thinking something through. “That’s why I needed a charger because I forgot to charge my phone last night but I was supposed to meet my roommate here. It died and I may or may not have been totally scared to come sit with you but I’m glad I did now because I can finally text Dinah to see where she is and I made a new Coffee Break friend,” Camila happily rambles, reaching to see if Dinah has replied to her text yet, cringing when her phone is still dead, and not noticing Lauren’s eyes replace confusion with frustration, but she does look up to meet the green eyes once they’re back to something like aggravation with acceptance. 

“Did you say Dinah?” Lauren asks and Camila nods smiling because the thought of her best friend makes her happy, they’ve always been close and the thought of Lauren maybe knowing her too, woah that’d be like three things in common, four if you count needing a charger, five if you count- “as in Dinah Jane Hansen?” 

“Yeah that’s the one, you know her?” Camila asks, not knowing how to read Lauren’s face now because hell she’s only known her for like ten minutes she isn’t going to be able to read all her facial expressions. 

“As in Normani Kordei’s girlfriend?” Lauren asks and now Camila can read realization maybe? She’s still not sure but she nods because yeah she loves Normani even though she’s only met her a few times but Dinah is definitely dating - “Oh my god,” Lauren groans and leans back in her chair and buries her face into her hands. 

“Did I umm… do something to offend you? I’m sorry if I did,” Camila says not knowing how to handle any pretty girl, let alone an upset drop dead gorgeous girl. 

“No god no it’s not you it’s just…” Lauren trails off and leans forward on her elbows on the table before continuing, “Normani was supposed to meet me, she’s the reason I had to charge my laptop, she killed it this morning looking up cooking tutorials? The point is that I’m at the only outlet in our best friends’ favorite coffee place because she killed my Mac, you need the only outlet in our best friends’ coffee place because you didn’t charge your phone? Are you sure maybe Dinah didn’t unplug it once you fell asleep?” Lauren asks and Camila thinks back although she’s still clueless as to what Lauren is insinuating. 

It is very much a possibility that Dinah unplugged her phone. Camila fell asleep first, and she had been confused this morning when it wasn’t plugged in because she could’ve sworn she did that time. 

“She could’ve,” Camila answers with a nod and Lauren lets out a dry laugh. “I’m sorry if I’m slow and all but what does that have to do with-”

“Has Dinah been on you about your dating life lately?” Lauren asks and Camila doesn’t know what she nods, remembering Dinah’s pestering for her to get ready to mingle since she was already single. 

“This is a set up,” Lauren concludes and leans back in her seat again, moving her eyes up to meet Camila’s and the younger girl blushes as she processes how right Lauren is. “They ditched us and made sure we’d have to sit with each other.”

“Well fuck you’re one smart cookie figuring that out,” Camila says, taking a sip of what’s left of her coffee and looking down to see that her phone has finally lit up with a charge after like ten minutes. There’s a text from Dinah reading “thank me later” and Camila wants to laugh and also hit Dinah in the head and maybe date Lauren but the other girl is still looking kind of confused so Camila doesn’t know if now is a good time. 

Camila isn’t very good with girls. She hasn’t been ever since she realized she was gay, before that even, and right now she can’t really read Lauren at all. She doesn’t know whether Lauren is aggravated with her, aggravated with Normani, hungry, tired, or maybe confused (cause Camila knows she still is). So Camila decides to trust her instincts and go in for the kill.

“Want me to get you a coffee for your trouble? Maybe at a different coffee place with better drink names and more outlets?” 

Lauren looks up finally from where she had been playing with the empty coffee cup in her hands and Camila first thinks maybe she shouldn’t still be trying (and failing) to flirt with this girl when they’ve just found out they were set up. BUt then Lauren smiles at her and she lets out a little chuckle and she’s like a puppy again and Camila has already mentioned that she loves puppies but she loves puppies. 

“Yeah coffee sounds good,” Lauren answers as she tosses her cup into the trash behind her shoulder. “Maybe you could throw in your number too? Maybe dinner sometime this week?” 

And as Lauren stands and offers Camila a hand after gathering her laptop in her bag, Camila once again doesn’t care that her phone is still on 13% and tugs out the chord so she can take the hand and go get some coffee that won’t be the only thing making her crazy.


End file.
